The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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I am beginning to think I have ( auto-immune) thyroid disease, like you and krex.

How many people on here have thyroid problems? Please tell about it.

It's a while now that I've had bouts of tingly hands and numbness, loss of sensation in fingers, and episodes of gritty eye, like sand in them, and periods of nights from which i wake up feeling as if I almost didn't breathe, as if there had been a weight on my chest, and of vegetative stillnesses for hours on end, and the hair loss is awful, and how stressed i am about going out, how long it takes for me to recover from socialising, how quickly i tire, achey knee and finger joints, strange itchy patches of skin, ( though that, like some of the other symptoms has let up since I stopped wheat and dairy 6 months ago, thus reducing the load on my immune system and therefore its attack on my thyroid ) , how my hair started going white in my twenties, how when i stand up fast i feel dizzy, and how much more monotone and deep voiced i am than i used to be, and how sleepy i feel, and how often i nap, and how irritable I am, how heavy and crampy my periods have suddenly become the last few months, and how easily stressed, ( i am pretty sure that this has been going on for years and my adrenal are also exhausted); my eyes have been worrying me, and also just how little i seem to be able to manage in the day; I'm only 44.

I was reading the online textbook on thyroid disease ( thyroid manager ? ), and then found this site, with a particularly illuminating page listing symptoms, at:

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic/

I particularly "appreciated" the symptom; " Inability to function in a relationship with anyone".

Anyone got any stories. Please pass on info, experiences etc.

I also had manic periods and depression; apparently psychiatrists are just beginning to take thyroid seriously as a major player in mental health.

It slowed me right down in my early teens too. Hated the cold, ( used to sit right up against scalding hot radiators to try and get warm), was hyper sensitive to it, still am, though this last year started to find heat disagreeable for first time since my twenties. Was so sluggish, was so awkward, so pasty faced, so craving carbos, etc in puberty, and now it's happened again, the last 18 months or so since moved here and got less sunshine and also seriously cut out/down coffee after years of daily cups of real french espresso.

PS: I notice that another set of symptoms related to thyroid disease , because of the adrenal exhaustion as a result of compensating for thyroid misfunction, along with finding lots of ordinary things stressful, is an exaggerated startle reflex, to sounds especially.

Also it has been misdiagnosed as/accused of being Fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohns disease, ( because of the digestive disturbance, abdominal pains etc), and Mitochondrial dysfunction, amongst other things.

Last edited by ouinon on 30 Apr 2008, 3:48 am, edited 4 times in total.

Umm. Which ones ?

Hi Ouinon....(everytime I see your name I think you have misspelled onion...)

You say thyroid and it is like you have tripped my monologue trigger, (special interest)


I am not going to say that autism IS caused by an over responsive immune function but...I do think that this accounts for the intensity and variations of some of the negative traits. I hope for the day when autism is acknowledged as a neurological and "whole body" system and gets the hell out of "psychology" texts. Psychology is "bad science" and it irritates me, when everything we experience is written off as "autism/psychological" before they can be fully investigated as digestive/neurological/immune issues....(Could some one please pass the leeches, I think I have some bad blood that needs to be removed)<---this is how archaic I believe the current approach to autism is


I had sever depression from early teen years and (what is the word for someone who feels no or little pleasure in life...hanadonia...sp?) since childhood. It wasn't until my early twenties before a nurse practitioner,(not a DR), bothered to mention that the thyroid can effect mood???? It took months to get my thyroid level to be "normal levels" with some very inexpensive thyroid meds. I had all the symptoms of low thyroid for years but it had gotten to the point where my hands had palsy like shaking before anyone thought to check it. My weight at this time was (and always had been), below normal body fat levels, unusual according to my DR because a low thyroid is often accompanied by weight gain. According to my nurse practitioner this is why-----> she believed, that in my bodies attempts to balance an out of balance thyroid, my body was dumping adrenalin into my system, causing panic attacks, generalized anxiety mixed with feeling overly fatigued,(maybe why some people end up being DXed with bi-polar?). When I was in "manic states", I was never delusional with high self-esteem or spending/big plans but rather lost my normal state of pessimism and felt a normal level of "hope"<---very abnormal for me I would also have much worse insomnia and bursts of physical energy, (30 mile bike marathons and all night crafting)..I miss those.


I have also had several,(since childhood and even as recently as the past few years) treatments with flouride(those nasty trays you hold in your mouth for 20 min and high flouride perscription toothpaste)... because of very bad teath. Flouride was once used to lesson the effects of an over active throid. I believe it might have been responsiable for under-activating mine even though the dentist says that isn't true??? Flouride is added to most municiple water and is different levels in each area,(some people drink more soda then water but we didn't when I was growing up)


I have to go ...monologue will continue when I get home.

Another thing you might want to have checked out is any possible hormone fluctuation. I believe my throid like symptoms have been much worse since I have had fybroid uterine tumor. Some day I hope to be wealthy enough to have it removed.

Hello Lemon

My computer is sooo slow that I can't watch Chuck's videos ( pout). I watched a bit of the first one so I am ..intrigued.

Now if I kept posting, I could have a whole page to myself.

Don't count on it...

Thank you, SleepyDragon. The extreme fatigue seems to be letting up. The pain levels were, on a scale of 1 - 10, at a 10. That has become less, as well. I walked outside today, and it was beautiful. Also, Chinese ginseng helped out a little.

I was diagnosed with hypo thyroid problems back in the 80's. Started on Synthroid. After a few years, was taken off it. Been presenting with hypo thyroid symptoms ever since. The docs say that I have borderline thyroid dysfunction, and refuse to give medication for it. Go figure!

Both you and Krex make good points about the thyroid causing problems that mimic mental health issues, like Bipolar disorder.

Yeah...I have a monologue to continue....


So........

Are you a vegetarian? If you have been having some bad bleeding, you may want to get your iron levels checked. I'm a major carnivore and tested low in Iron, and that accounts for some of the fatigue. I am trying to remember to take my iron supplements but I only seem to do it when I have been really tired for several days. Part of my problem with taking these and other vitamins is that you have to take it with food and I don't eat often. Bad habit. I also live on caffeine, I don't know if I could function at all with out it....then again, you already know that I have some pretty bad life style habits I think some of those habits are my illogical way of dealing with the symptoms of fatigue that proceeded them but....they certainly are not a functional way to do so(which is what you are looking for).


My non medically qualified recommendation.....

Blood work for....

thyroid,iron,hormone and adrenal fatigue levels...here is the problem. If you have been checking out thyroid sites, you have probably noticed some issues with the recommendations of "experts in the field" and your average GP. The former have changed their level of what is "normal" to be much lower then the common levels that DR's use for normal. Having to high levels can cause some serious side effects(i think something to do with strokes or heart?) and they prefer to stay within the lower levels of synthroid. The "experts" seem to realize that what is "normal" for one person may be to high or low for another. It is variable. They are more likely to adjust your dose not based "just" on the numbers but on your function level. If you are up to a "normal level" but still have the hair loss, dry skin, anxiety and fatigue swings, bad bleeding...they will adjust it to treat the side-effects. My GP refuses to do that....she follows the numbers not the symptoms and wont give me a referral for a specialist cause she knows what she's doing....arrrggg.


In addition to the blood work....you might consider getting an ultra sound to rule out fibroid tumors.

Might not hurt to check for sleep apnia as well as one of your syptoms sounded like that could be an issue. What is weird to me is that I used to have the same problem...waking up gasping for breath and often had headaches when I first woke...but that seemes to not be happening in the past few years and I don't know why. That is weird because I don't think someone can have a sleep apnia remission and I have gained weight in the past few years(which would normally make it worse)??That one has me stumped. Maybe it was an alergy thing that I am no longer exposed to (or the allergy meds I'm taking has helped?)


Wishing you luck and hoping you have good medical insurence and an open minded DR.

Awww, poor lady. My thoughts and prayers will have to be with you and Deacon

Is there anything I can do?

Anhedonia.

This continues to be true. The only substances that seem to have any effect on my state of mind are alcohol and antidepressant meds.

When I was about 45, a vegan friend came to stay with us. Animal products? She didn't even touch honey. I figured that a vacation from meat wouldn't do me any harm, so I ate what she ate. After a few weeks of this, I was still as grumpy and anhedonic¹ as ever, but all my niggling muscle & joint pains had disappeared.

I reverted to my old eating habits afterward, and my orthopaedic woes resumed.

Aside from that, my diet has virtually no detectable impact on the way I feel.
______________________
1. What a beautiful word that is!

If you want to sound fancy, SD, when you're feeling grumpy, you can say you're "dysphoric"...

He had a long life, and I commend him for his wonderful discovery

it was my favorite thing in this life.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/29/hofman ... index.html

RIP Dr Albert Hoffman